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Class Q
:Posted on the forums 19 June 2009: Shaman Q&A with Ghostcrawler and the World of Warcraft Development Team Community Team: Q: Where do shamans fit into the larger scope of things currently and where do you see them going from this point forward? Ghostcrawler: : trying to group with a shaman to do a group quest. But he just told me was an overpowered shaman (Frost Shock!) and didn't need the help.}} : The Burning Crusade, we decided that all three of their trees should have viable roles in the end-game. We also decided that hybrid classes (those that can fill more than one role, such as damage and healing) should do less damage than the classes that could only fill the damage role. This philosophy generally worked, in some cases too well, because Sunwell raids were infamous for stacking lots of shamans.}} : Lich King, a primary goal for raiding was to give players far more flexibility in which classes they brought and try to de-emphasize "raid stacking" as much as possible. This meant we needed to share the unique, mandatory buffs among more classes and specs so that, for example, a raid wasn't gimped if they happened to lack a +spell power or +crit buff. However, we didn't want say shamans to no longer be attractive for raiding so we brought up their damage a lot. It might still not be as high as rogues or warlocks, but it's close, and if you have the right gear and really know how to play, you can even beat those classes on some bosses. No raid worth its salt would turn down an Enhancement, Elemental or Restoration shaman for fear of bringing down the raid.}} : : Q: What is it that makes them unique compared to all other classes? Ghostcrawler: : : : : Community Team: Q: Are there plans to look at totems in general, the way they are managed, their uses, and their benefits in the future? Ghostcrawler: : : : : Q: And, what are the possible impacts of considering changes to a system like this? Ghostcrawler: : : : Community Team: Q: Is there any plan to look at the way totems are being used and either update little-used totems or consolidate totems that don't seem to be of a particularly great strategic value individually? Ghostcrawler: : : Lich King, and you should expect another round of that at some point in the future. As always, we're unsure of how many of these changes we will get in for the 3.2 patch. We're trying to keep the list of class changes down compared to 3.1, where some players felt whiplash from so many frequent and sometimes substantial changes to their class. }} Q: In addition, many valued enhancement totem relics are only available via random drops, which has been voiced as something that we've wanted to avoid in the past. Are there any plans to change this? Ghostcrawler: : Community Team: Q: Is there any reason that they start this way or is there any future change in store to address this disparity between their base health and that of other classes? Ghostcrawler: : Community Team: Q: When itemizing for the shaman class, what are the aspects that are looked at, and are there plans to make additional improvements to the way itemization is done for the class or for specific talent specs? Ghostcrawler: : : : : Q: What is the expectation for how shamans choose the gear they use? Ghostcrawler: : and .}} : : who is easy to reach, but not Algalon.) We have to avoid the situation where say the Elemental shaman only wants one set of shoulders in the whole instance and those shoulders are unattractive to everyone else in the raid. This is why we often say that we need to fix these problems on the class side, not the item side.}} : Community Team: Q: Where do we feel the role of the shaman is in raids now and where do we see that going in the future? Ghostcrawler: : Burning Crusade. We do think Restoration shamans are at the risk of running out of mana perhaps more than any other healer right now, and in fact the seemingly unlimited mana in some healers is what leads to Chain Heal getting stomped on by other big heals. This is a problem we plan on addressing.}} Q: Is the change in how shamans are used situational only as we move forward into the next encounters, or is this a shift in philosophy as to the role of the shaman in raids? Ghostcrawler: : : is one example. We try to make sure the encounters are diverse enough that the same classes aren't always in the spotlight on every encounter, but we also don't want to constrain our encounter designers' creativity too much. Elemental may suffer from so many fights in Ulduar requiring movement. Also, while we have given Elemental strong AoE in the form of the Magma Totem, some players feel like this comes at too high a cost to their buffs and mobility, so this is something we'll look at.}} : : Community Team: Q: Are there any other considerations in store for improving overall performance for shaman in PvP encounters (whether in Arena or in Battlegrounds)? Ghostcrawler: : : : : : Q: What considerations are being made for combating the use of totem-killing macros in PvP, and is this seen as a problem currently? Ghostcrawler: : External links Category:Shamans Category:Coming soon